Finish "The Knight's Tale" for Wednesday's class and remember what we discussed on Friday--about the different narrators in the piece, and how we can tell (if we can tell!) which one of them is speaking when. Is it the Knight? The Poet-Narrator? Or Chaucer himself, speaking through one of them?
Answer TWO
of the following:
Q1: Why does The Knight lavish such detail on the temples of Mars, Venus, and Diana? For someone who wants to cut to the chase, why does he lose himself in all the seemingly unnecessary detail? Or is there something Chaucer wants us to see here? Who is really writing these passages?
Q2: "Bathos" means an attempt to write great, moving poetry that utterly fails and becomes ridiculous, lame, or simply laughable. Throughout the poem, the Knight has many bathetic moments, either because he isn't the best poet, or he's satirizing the "lovers" in the poem. Discuss a moment which you think is bathetic and makes the poem temporarily come crashing down around the Knight's feet (hint: look at the speeches!).
Q3: Discuss Theseus' final speech in the poem: since the Knight probably identifies with Theseus, what sentiments is he pronouncing here? How is he trying to end the poem? Do you think Chaucer concurs with this--or is he still mocking the Knight's pretensions?
Q4: Chaucer (or the Knight) doesn't allow Emily much room to be a character in her own right...but what does she reveal about herself, or the Medieval woman, in the poem? How does she comment on the practice of chivalric love from a woman's perspective?
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